Happy
Hour is a play for two actors, a director
and a sound programmer. The project juxtaposes dramatic text and digital
technology. Here interactive sound modulation and painting animation
projections interact with live physicality of performer. They complement
each other in a dramatic narrative.

New Danish Drama.
The text Happy Hour is the story of a meeting between a modern couple
(Woman, Man) in a fairy-tale universe. Here they are able to transgress
their lonely everyday life. Their identities are at stake as they reveal
their narcissistic and modern fantasies about being celebrities. These
fantasies make them feel alive. The Woman as a TV presenter, the man as
the fairy-tale writer. However, with the arrival of the mysterious Guest,
events start occurring. They perform an interview employing the writer¹s
latest fairy tale "Happy Hour" as theme. Little by little, the gates of
the chaotic and irrational open, and the Man and the Woman are absorbed
by their fairy-tale world. The Princess (Woman) exercises the merciless
cruelty of the spell and exposes the Hero (Man) to impossible trials doomed
to fail. The everyday power struggles now show in the mutual relationship
between the fairy-tale characters. Urged on by the Guest, their eccentricities
escalate to the erotic grotesque and to the point where their identities
merge with the fairy-tale characters. The Guest is a Trickster, a clown
who challenges, extends, and distorts their game to the point of absurdity.
The Guest has the two main characters oscillating between the different
fictional layers; the living room, the TV studio and the fairy tale. As
they return to their everyday life, the Man and the Woman, sat in each
their corner, resumes to roles of doubting individuals.

The multimedia aspect of the
theatre project is closely related to the Guest. Using the "digitial
dance system", the Guest shapes and manipulates the others¹ voices and
singing in real time and in prewritten scenes. The Guest¹s movements
are transmitted through censors, which measure the joints¹ angle size.
These data are transmitted to a computer programme. Here the sound from
the Man and the Woman¹s micro porters are modelled. Every censor influences
each of the sound features (pitch, pace, filter etc). The result is
a direct and inextricable connection between the Guest's movements and
the Man and the Woman¹s voices. The Guest becomes director and a modern
puppeteer. The Man and the Woman experience self-alienation. Their voices
merge with the Guest's

Aesthetic forms of expression: The
scrip¹s different fictional layers are reflected in the different acting
styles: the naturalistic tradition is juxtaposed with the more stylised
visual tableau style: the private versus the extreme theatricality. The
digital technology experiments emphasise this particular style of oscillating
between tradition and innovation. By way of digital dance systems makes,
the Guest can manipulate the voices of the actors. The Guest's movements
are directly linked to the two characters¹ voices and language. This form
of manipulation is employed in certain text and singing sections written
especially for this performance. In Happy Hour Studio RU are collaborating
with sound artist and technician Thomas Wernberg (www.selectricity.dk)